IRISH SPECIALITY pharmaceuticals group EirGen has just secured a €500,000 deal to supply three cancer products to the largest pharmaceuticals group in Uruguay. It is the company’s first contract in Latin America.

The Waterford company is also close to signing an even more important agreement with one of the largest players in Mexico, one of the largest markets in the Americas.

Its new Uruguayan partner, Laboratorios Clausen, also has a significant presence in the Argentine market. EirGen will supply both those markets through the Uruguayan firm.

Tom Brennan, technical director of EirGen, who signed the deal in Uruguay recently, said the two companies had also agreed to collaborate on development of a product for the treatment of chronic myelogenous leukaemia. If successful, the two partner firms would sell the therapy in the European and Latin American markets.

“This is a significant deal for us. Clausen is a mature business with a strong reputation. We will be a partner with the biggest player in the country.”

Mr Brennan reckons the Uruguay deal will be worth about €500,000 a year to EirGen, with the Mexican transaction bringing in a multiple of that.

The company is hoping to expand significantly with the approval this year of the first products developed in-house. The Canadian authorities have already approved a breast cancer therapy and EirGen expects pan-European approval by the end of this month.

The company also has four products applications lodged with the US regulator, the Food and Drug Administration, and is hopeful of progress in the US before the end of the year.

Until now, EirGen, which was founded by Patsy Carney and Tom Brennan in 2005, has operated as a contract manufacturer and drug development house for other companies as it develops its own products.

EirGen has built a specialised plant in Waterford designed specifically for the development and manufacture of highly potent drugs such as those used in the treatment of cancer.

Mr Brennan says the company believes it is one of only three such facilities worldwide able to offer contract manufacturing capability to other firms, especially in generics.

Regulators are increasingly urging companies to use such dedicated specialised facilities for potent cancer therapies – a move that has enabled EirGen to record profits from its first year in business.